After a web is manufactured it is normally wound up onto rolls each holding a considerable length of the freshly made web, for instance a plastic sheet. Since the manufacturing process is a continuous one, the rolls must be produced without interrupting the movement of the web, that is in a quick operation the web must be cross cut, the full roll must be moved out of the way, and the fresh leading end created by the cross cut must be applied to and wound on a fresh sleeve.
An apparatus of the type described above has been disclosed in DE 195 42 906. Here the sleeve onto which the web is to be wound is partially surrounded by a guide shell during the roll-changeover operation. At the beginning of a roll-changeover operation, a continuously fed plastic foil is cross-cut by means of a separate cutter. In the region of this cross-cutting action, air is blown at high speed into the flow gap through a slot nozzle. The result is that a partial vacuum is created below the plastic foil and the end of the web is sucked into the flow gap and pressed against the sleeve onto which material is to be wound. While this known device has fundamentally proven to be successful, it nevertheless is characterized by certain disadvantages. The known device has a relatively high number of parts and is consequently of relatively complex design, thereby necessitating correspondingly expensive servicing and maintenance measures. In addition, the cross-cutting and roll-changeover operation in this known device takes a relatively long time. Another disadvantage consists in the fact that it is not possible to do a fold-free winding of the end of the web onto the sleeve.
Another aspect known from use in practice is to specially prepare the sleeves for the roll changeover, in particular, to provide them with an adhesive. However, an apparatus that is breakdown-prone and of costly design is required for this purpose.